The South African Air Force will be using a “Noah's Ark” approach to replace its transport and liaison fleet which is approaching bloc obsolescence. That's the word from air force chief Lieutenant General Carlo Gagiano.

Addressing the media this week, he said “our air transport and maritime fleet is really, really getting very, very old now. This has a direct effect on the availability of the aircraft. If you draw a graph on availability versus age you will see as age increases availability deceases... the moment you go over 20 years or so,you will see a marked decrease in availability of these aircraft,” Gagiano said.

“The need is so great we cannot do one system at a time. If we need a strategic airlift aircraft, we will nedd to buy one or two, if we need something to replace the C130, (pictured) one or two of those as well. Then the Casa 212 is just as old as well, coming up for 30 years. The [Douglas] C47 is 75 years this year, so we have to replace them as well.

“It will have to be a process different from what we've been doing before, where if we wanted to replace Cheetah, we replace it in its entirety. This one we will have to do differently in order to ensure we have the capability that is required.”

Clever thinking *1

Gagiano continued that although the contract for the acquisition of eight Airbus Military A400M transports were cancelled last year, “it is a fact that the air force has a requirement for a strategic airlifter. Whether it is eight aircraft... I don't think that is the issue. The issue is there is a requirement for such a capability *2. But there is also a requirement for the rest of the fleet... why I refer to ones and twos, perhaps its threes and fours... I don't know at this stage, its all dependent on the funding available. But the dilemma we sit with is that the whole fleet is old. And with the country the size of ours and the budget we have its just impossible to replace the entire fleet. So we will have to think very cleverly *3.”

Major General Job “Lucky” Ngema, chief director air policy and planning added that the current fleet has become very expensive to operate. “Therefore in the different categories we need to make some strides and as the chief mentioned, we cannot go all out [to replace all types], it will be obscenely expensive. Therefore piecemeal on each type is probably the sane way to go.”

Brigadier General Wiseman Mbambi, director air capability planning noted that if “one looks at the requirement, especially from Joint Ops [the Joint Operations Division tasked with executing deployments], especially for the sustainment of external operations, it is the requirement that is there all the time. But now in terms of replacement and ensuring we have the right platforms, we need really to do good footwork, all these things require funding. With regards to the SCAMP [Strategic Capital Acquisition Master Plan, a 30-year rolling equipment purchases schedule] reschedule, we are in a situation whereby we look at the C130 replacement around 2015/6, which is in itself a big challenge for us as the aircraft we currently have are very old. But we need have to find a way to sustain them until that period.”

Mbambi also commented on the still-to-be-completed Air Transport Strategy asked for by Cabinet after the A400 buy was cancelled. “Moving forward we are looking at a three tier system: medium air transport, light air transport and liaison. That is the immediate focus for us as the SAAF. So whilst we talk of the C130 replacement we are looking at the Casa replacement as well as it is one of the platforms that are very important for intra-theatre movements as far as operations are concerned.

“What one must understand it is not like walking into Mercedes showroom and saying ' I want the green one',” continues Gagiano. Six months ago Lockheed Martin's order book was full for C130Js up till the end of 2012. If I watch the media I can see a lot more countries have ordered the C130J *4 so we can find quite easily now that the order book is full until 2013. So, its not just that its our own wishes that will determine what [transport aircraft acquisition] is first. It is also what is available at the time, what is the situation in terms of cash flow and funding for projects in the air force. One must also remember the SA Army needs to rejuvenate some of its very old systems as well. So, although we are registering the operational requirements and the project status will then start, but it will be a question of what is available [in the market], what is the highest need – you must remember our VIP fleet is very old as well. The [Dassault] Falcon 50s we bought second hand and they are coming up for 30 years now. It is a reliability issue in terms of the dispatchability … and always being ready.

The C130 is 47 years old, the maritime surveillance capability is very very limited with the current Dakota. Therefore we may place a higher priority on that as well. But what s now happening is that we are registering all the requirements.. doing all the necessary project paper work... all these factors influencing us will be taken into account finally, so... its a whole mixed bag of requirements and issues impacting on this whole transport fleet.”

The SA project cycle explained

Gagiano then asked Brig Gen Norman Minne, the director air force acquisition to explain the difference between setting a requirement and satisfying that requirement. “There is a split in responsibility,” said Minne. “Setting the requirement is a service issue and satisfying that requirement is a project-related issue. You normally start with a study and stating a required operational capability (ROC) and that ROC, as we call it, starts in the service and goes through various forums in the service to joint operations and to the Military Command Council who confirms that ROC. Thereafter the staffwork starts and they write the Staff Target... at the same time the service is responsible for ensuring the availability of funding, scheduling the funding on the SCAMP where the funds are allocated.

“The Staff Target once again goes through the various forums and gets approved on the acquisition side, where we have within the Secretariat of Defence the Armaments Acquisition Control Board chaired by the Chief of Defence Materiel and the Armament Acquisition Steering Board chaired by the Secretary for Defence, and in the case of cardinal projects it goes to the AAC or Armament Acquisition Council chaired by the Minister of Defence.

“Once the Staff Target has been approved, a project name is allocated as well as a project officer and at that time the project becomes my responsibility at Air Force Acquisitions, within the Defence Materiel Division. Timelines can vary obviously according to the complexity of the project.”

Minne says the the Staff Requirement follows the Staff Target. While the latter “states the requirement quite clearly if in basic terms”, the former is the user requirement specification (URS), the functional URS and the logistic URS. “That can be a very involved document that can take some time. After that comes the Project Study phase and it includes also Armscor with an integrated project team and the URS is translated into an “A Specification” in engineering terms; and based on that eventually, once you go into the Acquisition Study, you put out your Request for Options and it is based on that that the contract is approved.”

A question of charter

Gagiano says if SA does not acquire a strategic lifter, it will remain dependent on charter services. “The problem with charter is it leaves you need no flexibility if the aircraft is not based in the country, to react quickly, because you need to get work permits, clearance, to operate in the country and beyond. So we are looking at different options, some of them are very very expensive, options other than buy that might prevent us from going that route [sic].”

With acknowledgements to Leon Engelbrecht and defenceWeb.

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*1*3     It will only be clever to buy the aircraft in two and threes if the entire type and quantity is pre-determined based on requirements and affordability.

It will be really stupid to buy two or three of one type now and another two or three of another type later.


*2      If there is a proper requirement there is a proper budget.


*4      Like I've been saying for quite a while.

We've operated C-130s very nicely for the last 35 years, they are not so obscenely expensive.

So just replace the C-130Cs with C-130Js a few at a time as money becomes available.

Ensure that Lockheed Martin charges the standard international price. That will be easy.

Don't let one of Jacob Zuma;s sons or Kgalema's Motlante's girlfriends add 30% onto the deal for themselves.

Forget what Brig Gen Minne says about defence acquisition, for that is teaching one's grandmother to suck eggs.

Keep those snouts out of the trough and those cotton pickers out of the taxpayers' pockets.

That's the cleverest thinking.